Turkey confirms Syria shot down F-4 military jet, Erdogan: "Turkey will determinedly take necessary steps" in response.(AA) And (HD).Syria shot down a Turkish military fighter jet in the eastern Mediterranean on Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s office said in a statement, amid earlier ambiguity over whether the plane had been downed by Syrian defense forces or had crashed.
“As a result of information obtained from the evaluation of our concerned institutions and from within the joint search and rescue operations with Syria, it is understood that our plane was brought down by Syria,” Erdogan’s office said.
Turkey would decide on its response to the incident once all of the details became clear, it said in the statement, issued after a two-hour meeting between Erdogan, members of his cabinet and the military.
His office also said that search and rescue operations were continuing for two missing pilots.
Following Erdogan's statement, the Syrian military said it shot down the Turkish military aircraft "over Syrian territorial waters."
"Our air defences confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane," a statement by the military circulated on state media said.
Earlier on Friday, Erdogan said he could not confirm whether Syria had admitted to shooting down a Turkish warplane in the Mediterranean.
While reports had circulated that Syria had apologized for the incident, claiming it was a mistake, Erdogan told a press conference in Ankara that he had no firm information on the apology.
He had also said he could not confirm whether the plane had been shot down or crashed.
Earlier, the Turkish army said it lost radar and radio contact with one of its aircrafts on the Mediterranean near neighboring Syria, and a television station said it had crashed in Syrian territorial waters.
The conflicting, or perhaps extra cautious, statements from the Turkish PM came after Erdogan was reportedly quoted by Haberturk daily newspaper earlier on Friday as saying: "Syria immediately offered a very serious apology for the incident and admitted it was a mistake."
He had also been quoted by the paper as saying the two pilots of the Turkish F-4 fighter jet were alive after the incident.
“At this moment the air force and navy are conducting search and rescue operations in the western Mediterranean and luckily our pilots are alive, we have just lost a plane,” he told journalists while travelling back from Brazil.
In Ankara, Erdogan told reporters there is no news on the pilots and Turkish ships and helicopters were searching for the missing pilots together with Syrian ships.
The senior adviser to the Turkish president, Arshad Harmozlo, had said that the statement from the Turkish news report was baseless, and instead reiterated Erdogan’s comments.
“We have no confirmation surrounding the Syrian apology or even that Syria has shot down the jet … The rescue operation to find the pilots continues,” he told Al Arabiya in a telephone interview. A statement following a two-hour security meeting led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the warplane that went missing near Syria was downed by Syrian forces and that the two Turkish pilots remain missing. It said Turkey "will determinedly take necessary steps" in response, without saying what they would be.Given the breakdown in relations between the two countries over the Syrian conflict, this incident has the potential to provoke a serious crisis, the BBC's Jonathan Head in Istanbul reports.
Much will depend on whether or not the Turkish pilots have survived, our correspondent says.
If not, public anger might push the government into some kind of punitive action against Syria, he adds.
Turkey has joined nations such as the US in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.
"Following the evaluation of data provided by our related institutions and the findings of the joint search and rescue efforts with Syria, it is understood that our plane was downed by Syria," the statement said, without providing other details.
It was not clear what action Turkey might take, but after a cross-border shooting by Syrian forces earlier this year Turkey said it would not tolerate any action that it deemed violating its security.
The downing of the F4 plane was likely to further escalate tensions. Turkey's military provided no details on the plane's mission, but some Turkish TV reports said it was on a reconnaissance flight.
Erdoğan said the plane went down in the Mediterranean Sea about 8 miles (13 kilometers) away from the Syrian town of Latakia. Four Turkish gunboats and three helicopters were searching for the pilots and wreckage of the plane.
Earlier Friday in Lebanon, Hezbollah's Manar TV reported that Syrian forces shot down the Turkish plane, citing unidentified Syrian security sources. Hezbollah is closely allied with Syria. DamPress and other Syrian news agencies reported at 16:00 local time Friday that two military aircraft infiltrated Syrian airspace over Latakia and broke the sound barrier while flying low in threatening formation. One was hit by Syrian anti-air fire and the second escaped.Read the full story here, here and here and BBC.

"Lost And Found" - 'Belarusian List' of Katyn Victims Found.(RN).The long-sought "Belarusian list" of Polish officers executed in 1940 by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, has been found in Russia’s state military archives, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
Natalia Lebedeva, a leading Russian historian on Katyn and a senior researcher at the Institute of General History (Russian Academy of Sciences), found the document in the archive of the Soviet 15th military escort brigade stationed in Belarus in 1940, which was engaged in transporting NKVD prisoners to Minsk.The Belarusian list contains 1,996 names of prisoners taken from cities in what is now western Belarus: Brest, Pinsk, Baranovichi, Grodno, Bialystok and others. They were apparently shot along with some 20,000 other Polish officers at prison camps in Russia (Kozelsk and Ostashkov) and Ukraine (Starobelsk).
Lebedeva, who said all the families of the shot officers were deported to Kazakhstan, plans to compare the list of the dead with the list of those deported.According to archival documents, 21,857 Poles, mostly captured Polish army officers, were executed in the spring of 1940 by the NKVD. Despite the fact the killings occurred at a number of NKVD prison camps, the mass executions are called the Katyn Massacre, after the Katyn forest in Smolensk region where many of the executions were carried out.
In Soviet times, the massacre was attributed to the Nazis, but in 1990 Moscow acknowledged that the Soviet authorities were responsible. Russia provided a list with the names of 14,552 soldiers who were shot and buried in Katyn, Kalinin, Mednoe and in Kharkov (Ukraine).
In 1994, Kiev gave Warsaw the so-called Ukrainian list, which included the names of 3,435 victims. In the ensuing years, researchers began to doubt they would ever find the Belarusian list.
On December 23, 2011 Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that not a single citizen of Poland was shot in 1940 on the territory of Belarus. According to Lukashenko, Belarus was only a "transit point."
On May 22, 2012 Vladimir Adamushko, director at the Department for Archives and Records Management of the Republic of Belarus, said there was not and could not be any such list.Hmmmm........Communism in all her glory.Read the full story here.

United Arab Emirates - First oil flows through UAE’s Hormuz bypass.(AA).One million barrels of Gulf oil is expected to flow through a new pipeline crossing the United Arab Emirates to the Gulf of Oman on Thursday as the UAE moves to complete the Strait of Hormuz bypass next month.
The pipeline ends the OPEC producer’s total dependence on the vital Gulf shipping artery which Iran has threatened to block as Western sanctions on its oil exports have tightened.
Escalating tensions in the Gulf region over the last year have spurred the UAE to speed up work on the long-delayed pipeline while other Gulf OPEC producers Kuwait and Qatar will continue to rely on shipping through the Strait to export fuel.
“This is a great solution for the UAE but it’s not a 100 percent solution for the whole problem,” said Theodore Karasik, research director at Dubai-based security consultancy INEGMA Group.
The new pipeline has a stated capacity of around 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) while UAE exports total around 2.4 million bpd. Some sources say the pipeline could carry around 2 million bpd of the UAE’s biggest export at a push.
The 370-km (231-mile) Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline carries oil from fields in the UAE’s western desert to the east coast port of Fujairah, a major oil storage and fuel bunkering hub.
“Today oil has been received at the main oil terminal in Fujairah and 1 million barrels is coming in,” a source directly involved in the project said.
“The plan is to load the first oil tanker around July 1... We will slowly increase it to 1.5 million bpd.”Hmmm.......Great for Iranian 'Target practice'.Read the full story here.

Political 'dysfunction' threatens US security: Panetta.(AP)."WASHINGTON — The "dysfunction" in the US Congress, where Republicans and Democrats have failed to compromise on debt reduction, threatens US national security, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
"One my greatest concerns as secretary is the dysfunction that we see in Washington," he said late Thursday at a ceremony in which he received an award for public service.
"It threatens our security and it raises questions about the capacity of our democracy to respond to crisis."Bitterly divided legislators have been struggling for the past year to reach a deal to rein in the debt, with Republicans demanding steep cuts in spending and Democrats calling for higher taxes on the wealthy.Hmmmmm.....Let me guess.......Cancel Democracy?Read the full story here.

U.S. State Departmentadds first Boko Haram members to ‘terrorist’ list.(AA).The United States on Thursday named three alleged leaders of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram as “foreign terrorists,” the first time it has blacklisted members of the Islamist group blamed for attacks across Africa’s most populous nation.
The State Department identified the three as Abubakar Shekau, who it called the “most visible” leader of the group, and Abubakar Adam Kambar and Khalid al-Barnawi, who it said were tied both to Boko Haram and to al Qaeda’s north African wing.
“Under Shekau’s leadership, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in northern Nigeria, its primary area of operation. In the last 18 months, Boko Haram or associated militants have killed more than 1,000 people,” the State Department said in an announcement.
“These designations demonstrate the United States’ resolve in diminishing the capacity of Boko Haram to execute violent attacks,” it said.
The action by the State and Treasury departments, first reported by Reuters on Wednesday, follows growing pressure on the Obama Administration to take stronger action against Boko Haram, which has stepped up attacks on Christian places of worship this year in its drive to establish an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria.
U.S. officials say the decision to list individual Boko Haram members, rather than apply the more sweeping “Foreign Terrorist Organization” label to the group as a whole as some U.S. lawmakers have demanded, reflected a desire not to elevate the group’s profile.
The action freezes any assets the three men have in the United States, and bar U.S. persons from any transactions with them.The State Department has been under pressure to act against Boko Haram for months.
In January, Lisa Monaco, the Justice Department’s top national security official, sent a letter to the State Department arguing that the Nigerian group met the criteria for a “foreign terrorist” listing because it either engages in terrorism that threatens the United States or has a capability or intent to do so.
Boko Haram increasingly is seen as a potent threat to Nigeria, the continent’s most populous state and major oil producer, and as part of growing arc of Islamist extremist groups stretching across northern Africa.
Republican senators led by Scott Brown of Massachusetts have introduced legislation requiring the State Department to determine whether Boko Haram should be designated as a terrorist group.But a group of academic experts on Africa sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month urging her not to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group, saying such a move could backfire by enhancing the group’s reputation among potential recruits and other militants.Hmmmm.....Killing Christians doesn't qualify you as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization" in Obama's reign.Read the full story here.

Following are excerpts from a sermon delivered by Egyptian cleric Mahmoud
Al-Masri, which aired on Iqra TV and was posted on Youtube on August 21,
2011.

Mahmoud Al-Masri: Allah said: “The black-eyed virgins of Paradise are
like hidden pearls.” This is a message to every pious sister: If you want to be
like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise – they are hidden, or in other words,
covered up. When you wear your hijab in this world, you are emulating the
black-eyed virgins, nay, you are a thousand times better and more beautiful than
them.
The virgins of Paradise are “close-guarded in pavilions.” That means that
they do not come and go too much. It is also admirable for women of this world
to avoid coming and going all the time – to the seamstress, to the
hairdresser’s, to her friend, or whatever. No, she should sit at home, Allah be
praised.
The black-eyed virgin wife in Paradise does not menstruate or have any of
those things that people find disgusting. She is pure of all those things that
might bother you in your wife. Moreover, when your Muslim wife enters Paradise
with you – that’s it, no more menstruation, no childbirth, no nothing. No more
of all those things that make you nauseous.This is also a message to every Muslim wife: Do not upset your husband,
because if you do, his [future] wife from among the virgins of Paradise will
curse you. Source: Memri.

Following are excerpts from an address by Egyptian cleric Muhammad Hussein Yaaqub, which was posted on the Internet on June 13, 2012.

Muhammad Hussein Yaaqub: The Shura Council of the Islamic Scholars [convened], and decided unanimously to support Dr. Muhammad Mursi for president. Do you have another solution? Do any of you have any other solution? There is no other way.
But I told him [Mursi] all the things that you want. I said to him: I want a Salafi president, [who follows] the Koran and the Sunna like the early Muslims.He said: “Yes, ours is a Salafi call.” He said so.
He said this, and it is recorded on video. He said it.
I asked him about the Shiites, and he said that the Shiites are more dangerous to Islam than the Jews. He said so.
I told him that I wanted a president who is not afraid of America, and he said: “I am not afraid.”
What more do you want?Source: Memri.

Fast And Furious: Executive Privilege Is Illegitimate to Shield Wrongdoing!(Heritage).By Todd Gaziano.As Holder surely knew all these past months, there is no privilege that exists between Congress and the executive branch to withhold documents except the constitutional executive privilege, which is based on the separation of powers. The slated House committee vote to hold Holder in contempt today was unfortunately necessary to get him to at least reconsider his lawless course of stonewalling.
In a desperate attempt to prevent the contempt vote in the last few hours, Holder asked President Obama to invoke executive privilege to shield these 1,300 pages of documents from Congress, and the President apparently agreed to do so. Yet that is not the end of the story. Even if properly involved, the Supreme Court has made clear that executive privilege is not absolute. DOJ must provide an explanation why all those documents fit one of the recognized categories of executive privilege. It is questionable whether they all are legitimately subject to executive privilege, for several reasons.

First, the Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon (1974) held that executive privilege cannot be invoked at all if the purpose is to shield wrongdoing.

The courts held that Nixon’s purported invocation of executive privilege was illegitimate, in part, for that reason. There is reason to suspect that this might be the case in the Fast and Furious cover-up and stonewalling effort. Congress needs to get to the bottom of that question to prevent an illegal invocation of executive privilege and further abuses of power. That will require an index of the withheld documents and an explanation of why each of them is covered by executive privilege—and more. Even a proper invocation of executive privilege regarding particular documents is not final.
But there is at least one helpful development in Holder’s request that the President invoke executive privilege to shield these documents: The President now owns the consequences of further stonewalling.The American people will now clearly understand that it is President Obama who doesn’t want them to know who is to blame for the Fast and Furious scandal—and whether his Administration has done anything to prevent it from happening again. Read the full story here.Todd Gaziano is the Director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He previously served in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the Attorney General and the President on the invocation of executive privilege. He was also a chief oversight counsel in the House of Representatives

In the Name of Allah Islamic Mediators and Germany's 'Two Legal Systems'.(Spiegel).By Joachim Wagner.
For years, Islamic mediators have been stepping in to solve family disputes and marital problems among Muslims in Germany. A new book takes a closer look at how their reliance on elements of Sharia law, instead of German law, affects Muslim women.Arnold Mengelkoch, the official in charge of immigrant affairs in Berlin's Neukölln district, is familiar with the "informal Islamic family justice system" in his neighborhood.He estimates that 10 to 15 percent of Muslims in the religiously conservative community use the system to resolve their conflicts.
"There are two legal systems," says Sabine Scholz, a family law attorney in the northern city of Flensburg, "a German one and an Islamic one, which puts women at a disadvantage."
For some Muslim immigrants, Islamic law is more important than German law. Mathias Rohe, an Islamic law expert in the Bavarian city of Erlangen, encountered cases in his field studies "in which Muslim parties performed marriages or divorces, for example, exclusively in accordance with traditional Islamic norms."
Some Muslims mistrust government organizations, says Rohe, who sees himself as an intermediary between Islamic and German legal cultures. According to Rohe, some people are trying "to establish a religious parallel structure, because they do not want to submit to the institutions of a secular, non-Islamic state."
As a result, imams and arbitrators in Berlin, the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein apply Sharia law on a daily basis, even though it is sometimes incompatible with the German constitution and German family law. In particular, Islamic law discriminates against women in the following ways:

They are not permitted to marry non-Muslims;

In an arbitration, family unity takes precedence over the woman's right of self-determination, even in cases involving violence;

In a divorce, the man receives sole custody of the children;

Polygamy and marriages with minors are allowed; under German law, 16-year-old girls can only marry with the permission of a family court.

Sometimes, however, the Muslim judges are willing to stretch Sharia law. The Islamic law rejects forced marriages, which have their roots in old traditions. But clerics often have no qualms about marrying underage girls, even if it's against their will.
Terres des Femmes, an organization devoted to protecting women, repeatedly sees 14- and 15-year-old girls, especially from Kurdish and Albanian backgrounds, who are supposed to be married by imams.Read the full story Here.

Egypt delays poll result to study appeals from Mursi and Shafiq.(AA).The body overseeing Egypt’s presidential election said it would not announce the results on Thursday as planned, saying it needed more time to study appeals from the candidates, but did not say when they might be ready, the state news agency reported.
The Egyptian presidential run-off pitted the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi against Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander who was Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister. Both claim to have won and have filed appeals against each other.
“The (election) committee has decided to continue to examine the appeals, which involves looking at records and logs related to the electoral process, and this will necessitate more time before announcing the final results,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Earlier, Committee Secretary-General Hatem Bagato told Reuters he could not say when the results would be announced.
“We are at the stage of listening to the representatives,” he said.
“The committee will meet afterwards to decide on whether to accept the appeals or not. After that, there will be a time set to announce the final result,” he added, speaking by phone.
On Tuesday, a U.S. election monitoring group said it was unable to say if Egypt’s presidential election was free and fair as it had not been given sufficient access, accusing the military leadership of hampering a transition to democracy.
Beyond the election itself, the group - the Carter Center - said a court’s decision to dissolve the Islamist-dominated parliament and a decree from the ruling military council limiting the future president’s powers increased the risk that Egypt was not becoming the democracy that many had hoped for.
Omar Salama, a legal advisor and member of the election committee’s secretariat, said Morsy had filed over 150 complaints against his rival Shafiq. Al Ahram newspaper said on its website that Shafiq had submitted 221 complaints about the results.
No official figures have been announced, but candidates had representatives at polling stations and were able to make their own tallies.
“We must give both sides all the time they need to ensure that the process is fair and prevent any claims later on that not enough time was given to both sides,” Bagato explained.Read the full story here.

"Obamanomics" 'U.S. Per Person Debt to Increase 7 Times Faster than Italian Debt'.(WS).According to the chart, which is based on numbers calculated by the International Monetary Fund, U.S. per person debt is currently $52,900, while Italy's per person debt is $41,200. In five years, America's is projected to be $67,500, and Italy's $43,200.
The chart stipulates that these figures are based on "General government (federal, state, and local) gross debt per person in nominal U.S. dollars as projected by the IMF.
These alarming numbers come at a time when Europe is trying to figure out how to bailout Italy. "Rising Italian borrowing costs mean analysts expect the Treasury to continue to skew issuance towards the short end of the curve, while relying heavily on domestic demand," Reuters reports.Read the full story here.

The U.S. Economy By The Numbers: 70 Facts That Barack Obama Does Not Want You To See.(BLN).By Michael Snyder﻿.BLN Contributing Writer.Why is the economy going to collapse? Have you ever been asked that question? If so, what did you say? Sometimes it is difficult to communicate dozens of complicated economic and financial concepts in a package that the average person on the street can easily digest. It can be very frustrating to know that something is true but not be able to explain it clearly to someone else. Hopefully many of you out there will find the list below useful. It is a list of 70 numbers that show why we are headed for a national economic nightmare. So why does the title of the article single out Barack Obama? Well, it is because right now he is the biggest cheerleader for the economy. He is attempting to convince all of us that everything is just fine and that the economy is heading in a positive direction. Well, the truth is that everything is not fine and things are about to get a whole lot worse. Certainly others should share in the blame as well. Congress has been steering the economy in the wrong direction for decades, the "too big to fail" banks have turned Wall Street into a pyramid of risk, leverage and debt, and the Federal Reserve has more power over the financial system than anyone else does. Our economy has been in decline for quite a while now, and soon we are going to smash directly into an economic brick wall. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans are in denial about this. A lot of people out there doubt that an economic collapse is coming. Well, if you know someone that believes that the U.S. economy is going to be "just fine", just show them the list below

The following are 70 facts that Barack Obama does not want you to see....$3.59 - When Barack Obama entered the White House, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.85. Today, it is $3.59.22 - It is hard to believe, but today the poverty rate for children living in the United States is a whopping 22 percent.23 - According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities permanently shut down in the United States every single day during 2010.30 - Back in 2007, about 10 percent of all unemployed Americans had been out of work for 52 weeks or longer. Today, that number is above 30 percent.32 - The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.35 - U.S. housing prices are now down a total of 35 percent from the peak of the housing bubble.40 - The official U.S. unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 40 months in a row.42 - According to one survey, 42 percent of all American workers are currently living paycheck to paycheck.48 - Shockingly, at this point 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty.49 - Today, an astounding 49.1 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the government.Read the full list @ BlacklistedNews

Iran's OPEC Governor: OPEC Members Oppose Increase in Production.(Fars).OPEC members believe there is no shortage in oil market and that is why producing oil beyond the official ceiling of 30 million barrels per day is not justified, Iran's Governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Mohammad Ali Khatibi stressed.Khatibi told the oil ministry's website, Shana, that during the recent meeting, members of the oil cartel expressed concern on excessive oil supply and called on the member states to adhere to the organization's agreed production ceiling.
He further said during the meeting it was emphasized that it is necessary those OPEC members that had raised their oil production reduce oil production in order to prevent surplus and restore stability to the oil market.
Khatibi noted that world oil consumption had not increased which is due to the impact of economic crises in the United States and Europe, so the surplus has not been absorbed by the oil market but has flowed into stockpiles in oil consuming countries and in some cases has been stocked by oil producing countries.
OPEC members reviewed different projections on oil demand and supply in the second half of 2012, Khatibi said adding oil market situation was also reviewed in 161st meeting of OPEC on 14th June.
"OPEC estimates average daily oil demand from the organization will be at 29.9 million barrels in 2012 which is lower than the official OPEC production ceiling at 30 million barrels per day the members agreed on in December 2011," the official noted.
Iran's OPEC governor said, "Based on the reports presented to the 161st meeting of OPEC, demand for OPEC's oil will reach 30.9 and 30.6 million barrels per day respectively in the third and the forth quarters of 2012."
On the current level of oil storage in floating storage facilities and in land, the official announced that OPEC reports show that the amount of storage is higher than past year levels.According to Khatibi the second letter is related to some OPEC members' remarks saying oil prices should come down to foster growth in the world economy, which is not acceptable.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran in its letter to OPEC has criticized the unilateral actions by some members for destabilizing the oil markets," Khatibi said.
On choosing OPEC's Secretary General, Khatibi noted that OPEC members discussed the issue but did not reach consensus so they will examine the issue in the next ministerial meeting in December.Read the full story here.

Alledged 'Al Qaeda Militant' ex - psychiatric patient"Takes four Hostages in Toulouse Bank.(CNBC).AP - A man who said he was a member of al Qaeda and armed with explosives was holding several people hostage in a bank in the southwestern French city of Toulouse on Wednesday, police said.
He released one of the hostages in exchange for food and water in the early afternoon.
The man took the hostages, who included the bank manager, in a branch of French bank CIC around mid-morning and fired a shot after an attempted armed robbery apparently went wrong, UNSA police union official Cedric Delage said.
A second shot was fired in mid-afternoon, according to two police sources.
"The man has made clear that he is not acting for money, but for religious reasons," Prosecutor Michel Valet told reporters.
A police official in Toulouse says one of the hostages, a woman, has been released. The official says negotiations are under way with the hostage-taker.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the subject.The hostage-taker asked for the elite RAID commando unit to come to the scene - the same squad which shot dead 23-year-old gunman Mohammed Merah in March after a long standoff at his home, which was just meters from the site of Wednesday's siege.A police source said police had identified the hostage-taker and brought in a person who knew him to help with negotiations. The source said the suspect had a name of North African origin and had spent time in a psychiatric hospital.Hmmm... he is not acting for money, but for religious reasons......Now what religion might that be?Read the full story here.More here.

If Egypt's government does go Islamist—and early presidential election results indicate it will— millions of powerless Christians will be seen as troublesome and unwelcome infidels, not just by "extremists," but by the government as well: the first step to genocide.

As Egypt's presidential elections come to a close, with the Brotherhood claiming presidential victory, the future for Egypt's indigenous Christians, the Copts, looks bleak.
Earlier, after the first presidential elections of May 23-24, any number of Islamists denounced them, bemoaning that it was the Copts who were responsible for the secularist candidate Ahmed Shafiq's good showing.
Even though Shafiq is a "remnant" of the Mubarak regime, under which Copts suffered, he is seen as the lesser of two evils to an Islamist presidency. As one Copt put it: "What did they want us to do? Whoever says that supporting Shafiq is a crime against the January 25 Revolution, we ask him to advise us for whom should we vote? The sea is in front of us and the Islamists are behind us."Islamist kingpin Yusuf Al-Qaradawi himself called on politically active Muslims to go meet with the Copts and "explain to them" how they have nothing to fear from an Islamist president, telling them that "Shafiq will be of no use to you."
Most adamant was popular TV personality Muhammad Hassan, a cleric who appeared several times assuring Copts that they have "nothing to fear from the application of Sharia," which he portrayed as the best guarantor for their safety and freedom. A day before the elections, Hassan implored the Copts "to elect Sharia and vote for Dr. Muhammad Morsi, promising them peace and security, and that they would live in prosperity under Sharia law."
Sheikh Muhammad Hassan is, incidentally, the same cleric who says Islam forbids Muslims from smiling at infidels—except whenever Muslims need to win them over. One week before he began beseeching Copts to vote for Sharia, he was in Saudi Arabia making disparaging comments about "those who say Allah has a son," the Koran's condemnatory language for Christians.Hmmm......Anyone believing that Pres Obama will speak up for the Christian Copts, can leave his number in the comments I've got a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.Read the full story here.

Malaysia charges Borders manager with selling Canadian Muslim lesbian activist Irshad Manji 'banned book'.(BP).Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, who manages the bookstore chain outlet in the capital Kuala Lumpur, is accused of distributing Irshad Manji's "Allah, Liberty and Love."
The Home Ministry banned the book last month after it was deemed offensive to Islam, contained "elements that could mislead the public," and was "detrimental to public order".
According to Manji's website, the book "shows all of us how to reconcile faith and freedom in a world seething with repressive dogmas".
Nik Raina faces up to two years in jail and a fine if the Islamic court finds her guilty, her lawyer Rosli Dahlan said. No plea was recorded Tuesday with the next court date set for September 19.
Rosli said Islamic officials raided the store before the book ban was officially announced, and the shop had filed a court case to declare the raid illegal.
Rosli added that Nik Raina had no authority over deciding which books to sell and was being singled out because those in charge of merchandising were ethnic Chinese non-Muslims. Non-Muslims cannot be charged in Islamic courts.
Malaysia has a system of Islamic courts that run parallel to the country's civil courts and administer civil matters for Muslims who make up some 60 percent of the country's 28 million people.New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on the government to reverse the book ban, saying it was "old-fashioned state repression" and "cowardly".Hmmmm..........Sounds like 'life and times' of Tomás de Torquemada.Read the full story here.

Israel - Rockets pound South; 11 border guard officers injured.(Ynet).Eleven Border Guard officers were wounded Tuesday night as a result of rocket fire on the western Negev. One officer sustained moderate injuries, while the others were lightly hurt.
The officers were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. Hospital officials said they were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit suffering from shrapnel and blast injuries. A short while later a Qassam rocket hit the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, but no one was hurt.
Ten more Qassams were lobbed into the western Negev overnight Wednesday. Two of the rockets landed in an Eshkol Regional Council community, but caused no injuries. However, a packing facility was damaged. The alert level in the area was raised once again.
In response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft attacked seven targets across the Gaza Strip overnight. Palestinian sources in the Hamas-ruled territory said no one was hurt in the strikes.
Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired over 50 rockets and mortar shells at Israel's western Negev region since Tuesday afternoon.
The Home Front Command instructed the residents of the Gaza vicinity communities to stay in very close proximity to shelters and other fortified structures.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak convened the defense establishment's top officials for a situation assessment.
A Defense Ministry source said that "a wide range of retaliatory actions are under review."Hmmm.....Aren't you glad that 'Emperor' Obama overruled Congress and gave these terrorists more money?Read the full story here.

"HALAL?" - Egypt Butcher slaughters wife to sell her flesh as 'Lamb meat'.(E24/7).An Egyptian butcher blindly in love with his profession slaughtered his wife and sold her flesh in his shop reported Arabian News Agency (ANA).
After a heated dispute between the couple, the butcher brutally killed his wife, peeled her skin off the bones and cut the flesh into pieces to look like meat.
He then sold the human flesh for Dh230 per kilo to his customers claiming that it was local lamb.
One of the clients who doubted the meat was not lamb informed the police who sent it for examination.
The police was astounded to see the meat was human flesh and immediately impounded it and arrested the butcher.
The guilty murderer confessed to the crime adding that the flesh belonged to the wife whom he had killed.
Police found the hips of thw woman in the fridge of the shop and rest of the body at the man’s residence.
He admitted that he had murdered his wife because she refused to obey him.Read the full story here.

Thrill-seeking tourists venture to West Bank to 'shoot terrorists'.(Ynet).Summer camp, warfare style: Like a frozen turkey plunged into boiling oil, a group of American tourists descend from an air-conditioned van into the scorching heat of the West Bank. Flashing smiles all around, they march into Caliber 3, a local shooting range.
"Move it!" the Israeli guide suddenly yells. "Destroy that terrorist," he orders them, and they charge, guns loaded, at cardboard targets.
Gush Etzion has become a hot destination in recent months for tourists seeking an Israeli experience like no other: The opportunity to pretend-shoot a terror operative. Residents of the nearby settlements, who run the site, offer day-trippers a chance to hear stories from the battleground, watch a simulated assassination of terrorists by guards, and fire weapons at the range.
The fact that the tourist attraction is located beyond the Green Line only intensifies the thrill for the visitors, who often appear disappointed when told by their guides that they are not in any danger.
Michel Brown, 40, a Miami banker, chose to take his wife and three children to the range with the purpose of "teaching them values."
Upon entering the range, his five-year-old daughter, Tamara, bursts into tears. A half hour later, she is holding a gun and shooting clay bullets like a pro.
"This is part of their education," Michel says as he proudly watches his daughter. "They should know where they come from and also feel some action."
Sharon Gat, the range's manager, says all the instructors at the site have served in elite IDF units.
"This is a special program created due to popular demand," he says. "Travelers from all over the world come here to meet former combat troops and hear stories about elite units. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience." Hmmmm......AlArabiya: "You can watch a simulated assassination of terrorists by guards".....You don't 'ASSASSINATE' Terrorists you ELIMINATE them!!!!Read the full story here.

Has anyone stopped to ask where the headlines "Muslim Brotherhood Wins Egypt's Presidential Election!" originate? They come, of course, straight from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies—particularly the Qatar-based Islamist propaganda machine, Al Jazeera—and were then unquestioningly picked up and spread like wildfire by the Western mainstream media and talking-heads.
Left unquoted by the Western media are the many Egyptian analysts that have a different tale to tell—that the secular candidate, Ahmed Shafiq, has won.But what does the Muslim Brotherhood have to benefit by claiming victory now, if official results might prove otherwise on June 21, a mere three days from now? Simple: they will be able to scream foul play—and gain the world's sympathy. For days the world will have been inundated with news that the Brotherhood won, so that, when and if it hears that Shafiq won, it will naturally conclude electoral fraud—which best serves the Islamists' interests.Mahmoud Baraka, a Shafiq campaign spokesman, maintains that "their candidate [Shafiq] won the presidency, with 52% of the votes"—precisely the same number the Brotherhood is claiming—adding that the Brotherhood's claims to victory "are bizarre and unacceptable," a "big act."
Likewise, talk show host Tawfik Okasha appeared emphatically saying that the Brotherhood's claims are "all lies," that most polls indicate that Brotherhood candidate Muhammad Morsi "failed," and that the Islamist group's motive is simply to sow "discord and dissension." He proceeded to give several examples of how the Brotherhood's claims are incongruous with reality.
But why believe Shafiq's spokesman and staunch secularist Okasha? Good question. Here's a better one: Why believe the Muslim Brotherhood? Why follow the lead of an organization that has mastered dissimulation, an organization that promised Egypt it would not run a presidential candidate, only to renege once opportune?Knowing the Brotherhood's deceptive tactics—"War is deceit" declared their prophet—there is good reason to think that they may have planned a propaganda victory well before the elections. They could claim victory, won fair and square; they could have their Islamist and Western media supporters trumpet it; they could embed it in everyone's mind over the course of three days before the results are formally announced—all to set the playing field to their advantage.
Then, if Shafiq wins, everyone—from militant Islamists in Egypt to a grandstanding U.S. Secretary of State—will shout, "foul play!" thereby exonerating the long promised civil war Egypt's Islamists vowed to wage if the election did not go their way—a rebellion that would then be portrayed in the West as a result of "grievance."The truth is, as of this moment, no one knows which candidate won. What is known is that it's a close race. Perhaps Morsi will win; perhaps Shafiq. Short time will tell.
In the meantime, although the media need to "break the news" and not be left behind, prudence is in order. It is counterproductive for the West to eat straight out of the Brotherhood's hands—to unreservedly follow their tune and propagate their unsubstantiated information—which is precisely what the Islamists want: it works only to their advantage.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

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Member of House Armed Services Committee: Release Pollard, he Poses No Threat To National Security.(Matzav).Representative Robert Andrews (D-NJ) is the latest member of Congress to formally urge President Obama to commute Jonathan Pollard’s sentence to time served (the full text of Congressman Andrews’ letter to the President appears below).
In his letter to the President and Attorney General Eric Holder, Congressman Andrews, who is a member of theHouse Committee on Armed Services, notes that Pollard’s release poses no threat to national security. He also notes the disproportionate nature of Pollard’s sentence and remarks that he was sentenced to life in prison without benefit of trial, as the result of a plea agreement which Pollard honored and the government abrogated.
Pollard has spent more than 26 years of an unprecedented life sentence languishing in a federal prison for passing classified information to Israel, an ally of the United States. The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years. No one else in the history of the United States has ever received a life sentence for this offense.
“I write to you out of concern for the ailing Jonathan Pollard and request that you commute his sentence to time-served, a position supported by former CIA director James Woolsey, former Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Dennis DeConcini, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger,” wrote Congressman Andrews in his letter to the President.
“If Mr. Pollard were released today he would pose no threat to national security and any intelligence that he once possessed is undoubtedly irrelevant 27 years later,” continued Congressman Andrews. “Commutation will not grant him pardon for his actions rather it will recognize that he has served more than ample time for his crime. I urge you to seriously consider this case and decide to commute Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence to time-served.”
Congressman Andrews’ letter to the President comes as a bi-partisan “Dear Colleague” letter is being circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives in support of clemency for Jonathan Pollard. Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) are soliciting signatures on a letter to President Obama, which urges the President to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served.Read the full story here.

No deal: After meeting, Issa says contempt vote on Holder is still on.(HA).Issa wants extensive documents, Holder’s offering a few documents plus, er, a briefing. If he doesn’t change his tune by 10 a.m. tomorrow, the contempt vote is happening.
This is some game of chicken they’re playing here.

The announcement Tuesday night by committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., followed a closed-door meeting at the Capitol between Issa and other Republican and Democratic lawmakers with Holder at the U.S. Capitol. Issa described himself as disappointed and still hoping for a breakthrough…
Holder, speaking in the Capitol Rotunda to reporters, said he had come “in good faith” and that he had made a number of documents, specifically those from February to December of 2011, available.
Asked if he thought he and his department could avoid the contempt vote, Holder said, “The ball’s in their court.”
But Issa said, “Today, the Attorney General informed us that the Department would not be producing those documents. The only offer they made involved us ending our investigation.”

Remember, Boehner’s reportedly not thrilled with the idea of F and F hearings sucking up lots of political oxygen during the campaign. That’s what Holder’s counting on, I assume — that Issa will either find some excuse at the last minute to avert the contempt vote at the committee level or that, if the committee does vote, Boehner will somehow bury the contempt recommendation before itcomes before the full House for a vote. (Follow the last link and you’ll see that even if the House votes to hold Holder in contempt, there’s always a chance that they’ll reach a deal on the documents with the DOJ before the inevitable court battle occurs.)Read the full story here.

Cherokee women to Elizabeth Warren: Stop ducking us!(BH).On their first day in the Hub, a group of Cherokees hoping to confront Elizabeth Warren over her Native American heritage claims blasted the Democrat for trying to dismiss the ancestry controversy as a non-issue in the Bay State U.S. Senate race.
“Poverty, teen suicide, our health care system,” said Cherokee genealogist Twila Barnes in an interview today with the Herald. “Those are issues and those are the people she stepped on and used to benefit and now she says it’s not an issue. Well, of course, to her it’s not an issue because she doesn’t want to address that she did this.”
Ali Sacks, a Cherokee from Warren’s home state of Oklahoma, had harsher words: “It’s cowardly to ride the coattails of people who have lost so much for your own benefit and not accomplish what you can accomplish on your own benefits. I think it’s shameful and extremely disrespectful not just to Cherokees but to all tribes who have given so much to this country historically and lost so much.”
“What is wrong with sitting down with the people she claims to be a part of?” said Sacks.
“That’s all we’d like to do — educate her. She has the same opportunity to educate us if we’re the wrong ones. But she runs and avoids because she knows there’s nothing to back her claims.”Read the full story here.

Former Hamas man to ‘tell truth’ about Muhammad, making film highlighting prophet’s penchant for "violence."(JPost).Ramallah-born Mosab Hassan Yousef has made enough enemies in the Palestinian territories to last a lifetime. The eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas, spent his early years as a Hamas activist and went through more than a few stints in Israeli prison.
But for ten years, Yousef was “the Green Prince,” a code name given to him by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), with whom he worked to prevent dozens of terrorist attacks during the second intifada, saving hundreds of Israeli lives.
Two years ago, Yousef – who now lives in the US – published the book Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue and Unthinkable Choices, in which he detailed his disillusionment with the violence inside Hamas and his decision to assist Israel from around 1996 to 2006.
Now 34, Yousef is a devout Christian who is open about his faith as well as his pessimism for the future of peace in the Middle East.
“This is not a time to surrender, this is a time to inspire the new generation,” said Yousef during a press conference on Tuesday organized by Media- Central. “I understand shame and sensitivity. The most shameful thing was to work for Israel, and I did it voluntarily, because I wanted to set an example that we must fight for freedom.”
The guiding principal throughout his tumultuous tenure, Yousef said, was his dedication to saving lives.
“Nobody knew of my existence, the only light I had in my life was, ‘how can I go wrong by saving a human life?’” said Yousef. “Yes, there are lots of politics involved and lots of national agendas and it was a very complicated situation, but it was about saving human beings. I had to trade culture, religion and identity – all this for the sake of humanity.”
“If I did something wrong in the eyes of many ignorant people, I am okay with that, and I hope one day they will be able to see this,” he added.
But Yousef, whose family disowned him, was not cowed by the enemies he created during his public revelation of his years as a Shin Bet double agent. Now, he is taking on an even bigger challenge: a movie depicting the life of Muhammad, Islam’s holiest prophet.
“Muslims don’t understand the real nature of Islam,” said Yousef, who said it is a fanatical religion that favors war over peace. He cited the Arab Spring’s failure to create meaningful change and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt as proof that Islam is propelling Arab states backward rather than forward.
Yousef noted that he has the authority to criticize Islam because he comes from an Islamic background. He said he wants the world to know about what he says is “the truth” about Muhammad, Islam’s holiest prophet: that he glorified and encouraged murder as a form of worship, married a 9- year-old bride and valued violence. Feuer will produce both a feature film adaptation of Son of Hamas as well as the Muhammad movie, and insists that the film will be a “historical account” faithful to Muslim texts.Yousef added that he wants to free the world of “the absolute power of all religions,” starting with Islam. “It is time to bring Allah to the table and see [Islam] for what it is,” he said.Read the full story here.

Tahrir Square protest LIVE !(RT).­The Muslim Brotherhood and other political groups protest a military declaration seeking to curtail the powers of Egypt’s next president. The protest is also to denounce a court ruling that dissolved parliament, where the Brotherhood dominated with just under half the seats.Live broadcast Here.
RT stopped broadcasting it's live stream , more info here at Al Jazeera.Live stream Reuters.

"YES WE CAN" - Iran, Russia, China, Syria to Stage Biggest Joint Wargames in Middle-East in coming weeks.(Fars).HT: IsraelMatzav.The Iranian, Russian, Chinese and Syrian armies are due to stage joint amphibious exercises along the Syrian costs in coming weeks, informed sources revealed on Monday.
According to informed sources, 90,000 forces from the four countries will take part in the land and sea wargames due to be held in Syria.
Ground, air and sea forces as well as air defense and missile units of the four countries will take part in the exercises.
Sources also said that Egypt has acceded to grant passage to 12 Chinese warships to sail through the Suez Canal, adding that the military convoy is due to dock at the Syrian harbors in the next two weeks.
Russian atomic submarines and warships, aircraft carriers and mine-clearing destroyers as well as Iranian battleships and submarines will also arrive in Syria at around the same date.
Syria plans to test its coast-to-sea and air defense missiles in the wargames.
A sum of 400 warplanes and 1,000 tanks will also be used in the exercises.
A Syrian official, who asked to remain anonymous, had informed two weeks ago that the drills would be conducted in Syria soon.
Unofficial sources also said the four countries are now busy with taking swift preparatory measures for these biggest-ever wargames in the Middle-East.Sham Life reported that the maneuvers will be stage in less than one month from now, that is early July.Read the full story here.

Updated -Russia, Syria deny war games with China, Iran.(JPost).The report appears to have originated on Arabic language Syrian media outlet, ShamLife, and was later also published on pan-Arab news site al-Arabiya.
The Iranian and Arabic reports said the war-games were scheduled for less than a month's time.
Other Iranian media outlets, including the Revolutionary Guards-linked Mashregh News and Mehr News, which is owned by the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization, also ran the same report on Tuesday, but did not cite any Iranian official sources as confirming it.Late Tuesday afternoon, Russia's Interfax news agency reported that a political and media adviser to Assad had denied that the war-games would take place.
"Nothing of the sort will happen. This is one of those mendacious reports that is being disseminated [about Syria]," adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said, according to Interfax.
Interfax cited a report by pan-Arab news agency al-Arabiya which it said was based on the Fars News article.
Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported late Tuesday afternoon that a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman also dismissed reports of the Syrian war games as attempts to "further escalate the situation in Syria."Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

Britain uses 'insurance cover' to stop Russian ship carrying attack helicopters for Syria.(Telegraph).The British marine insurer Standard Club said it had withdrawn cover from all the ships owned by Femco, a Russian cargo line, including the MV Alaed.
"We were made aware of the allegations that the Alaed was carrying munitions destined for Syria," the company said in a statement. "We have already informed the ship owner that their insurance cover ceased automatically in view of the nature of the voyage."British security officials confirmed they had told Standard Club that providing insurance to the shipment was likely to be a breach of European Union sanctions against the Syrian regime.They said they were continuing to monitor the ship, which has been the subject of a fierce international row since US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week revealed it was adding to the arsenal of weaponry available for Mr Assad to use against rebellious Syrian towns."We have various ways of keeping track of this ship and that is what we are doing," a source told The Daily Telegraph.The MV Alaed picked up its cargo of Mi25 helicopters – known as "flying tanks" – from the Russian port of Kaliningrad, where they had been sent to the state-owned manufacturer Mil's "Factory 150" for servicing and repairs.They were originally sold to the Syrian government by Moscow, its major arms supplier, at the end of the Soviet era.The ship headed south through the North Sea towards the English Channel on its way to the Mediterranean and, most likely, the Syrian port of Tartous, also home to a Russian naval base.But under sanctions announced last year, the EU has banned not only exporting arms to Syria but also providing related services such as insurance.As it neared the Dutch coast, the authorities there also hailed the ship, the security sources said, and it made an abrupt turn, heading towards Scotland.It was last night now off the coast of the Hebrides but with no insurance covering the ship security sources say it may now have to return to port.In their attempts to bombard rebel towns into submission, Assad regime forces have increasingly brought up helicopters, strafing the towns of Haffa and Rastan last week.Their use, condemned by Kofi Annan, the UN peace envoy, has not stopped Russia's continued insistence on providing arms to the Syrians. Moscow is continuing with a 2007 contract to provide more than 20 MiG-29 M2 fighter aircraft, according to the Americans.Read the full storyhere.

Obama Admin planning to sell 200 Abrams M1A1 SA to Islamist Justice And Development Party Led Moroccan Government.(DSCA).WASHINGTON, June 18, 2012 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress today of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco for enhancement and refurbishment of 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks and associated parts, equipment, logistical support and training for an estimated cost of $1.015 billion.
The Government of the Kingdom of Morocco has requested a possible enhancement and refurbishment of 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks, provided as part of a grant Excess Defense Article (EDA) transfer notified to Congress on 27 April 2011, to the M1A1 Special Armor (SA) configuration.
The possible sale will also provide 150 AN/VRC-87E and 50 AN/VRC-89E Exportable Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS), 200 M2 Chrysler Mount Machine Guns, and 400 7.62MM M240 Machine Guns. The possible sale also includes 12,049,842 Ammunition Rounds (including 1400 C785 SABOT, 1800 CA31 HEAT, and 5400 AA38 SLAP-T), 200 M250 Smoke Grenade Launchers, support equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training and training equipment, publications and technical data, communication support, U.S. Government and contractor technical assistance, and other related logistics support. The estimated cost is $1.015 billion.
This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a major Non-NATO ally that continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Africa.Hmmmm......Egypt Muslim brotherhood 125 M1-Abrams now Morocan Muslim Brotherhood 200 M1........ "So if you want to know where my heart lies, look no further than what I have done — to stand up for Israel" Obama.Read the full story here.

Malaysia government "LGBT not protected by Federal Constitution".(FMT).Kuala Lumpur: The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is not protected by clauses in the Federal Constitution that protects Malaysians against discrimination, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mashitah Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat today.
Mashitah said that Article 8 of the constitution, which talks about equality, has never been interpreted to mean sexual preference and only applies to gender.
“Article 8 of the Federal Constitution says there must be no discrimination of citizens in terms of religion or sex. ‘Sex’ has never been interpreted to mean sexual orientation; it has always been interpreted to mean either male or female, and they are [the only ones] protected by the constitution,” said Mashitah.
Clause 1 of Article 8 states that “all persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law”.
Clause 2 states that “there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender”.
She said this in reply to a supplementary question from Ngeh Khoo Ham (DAP-Beruas) during question time this morning.
Ngeh had asked whether it was right for the government to respond to the LGBT issue based on religious doctrine.
Mashitah earlier said that the government is serious in tackling the issue of LGBT as it went against the constitution of the country, which states that Islam is the official federal religion.
She said that through the many government initiatives, including rehabilitation and other programmes, “many have returned to the path [pangkalan]“.
“We see that LGBT happens following what is happening in Europe. It is not only individual but a movement. They are being mobilised to come out, as if they have been oppressed, on the excuse that their human rights have been taken away.
“We are against the mobilisation of this movement to spread this ideology,” she said.
Ngeh had also asked if any study had been done to show that the person is born this way or if it was a choice of lifestyles.
“It is wrong for the government to state that it is western problem, because this was even present in Malaysia 50-60 years ago,” he said.
Mashitah said that such studies were not done in Malaysia but an Australian study had stated that LGBTs were not born with their sexual preferences, but “it is more the tendency to be this way”.
Answering another supplementary question from Mohd Jidin Shafee (BN-Setiu), Mashitah said that Malaysia does not allow men or women who change their sex via surgical operations to also change their gender in registration documents.She said sex-change operations have been declared haram in syariah by the Fatwa Council in an edict.Hmmm........Study Says Lesbians and Heterosexual Men Are the Same in Their Perception of Smells.So much for the 'ideology' thesis.Read the full story here.

Dubai - 16 years for woman who beat her Indonesian maid to death with a frying pan.(TN).By Haneen Dajani and Ola Salem.Abu Dhabi - A woman who beat her maid to death was yesterday sentenced to 16 years in jail by the Criminal Court.The court also sentenced her male neighbour E H to a 13-year term, and ordered each of them to pay Dh200,000 in blood money to the maid’s relatives.
N S and E H, both Emiratis, undressed the maid, from Indonesia, before beating her to death with a frying pan. They were sentenced to 10 years each for causing her death, plus three years each for hiding evidence and misleading authorities. They had claimed the injuries were caused when she slipped on the kitchen floor and hit her head.
N S was sentenced to an additional three years for sexual assault.
The court heard previously that N S would regularly undress the maid to humiliate her and torture her by forcing her to eat spicy food.
Both N S and E H blamed each other. N S claimed that E H killed the maid because she threatened to report his homosexual activities to the police. E H claimed that he only watched as N S beat the maid.read the full story here.

In Memory Of Alexander Munch (1948 - 2012).

Israeli Six-Day War Vet.

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Irshad Manji.

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God.".

Ayaan Hirsi Ali .

Wafa Sultan .

"Telling the truth after proper investigation is the height of courage." - Wafa Sultan.

Hagarism - The Making of the Islamic World.

Pakistani Women's Human Rights Organisation

Persian2English -

Stop Child Executions

I Stand With Israel !

Koran 7:7, where G-d Himself bequeaths the Land of Israel to the Jews, as a nation who thought themselves weak, and blesses them with goodness.Source

Shariah: The Threat to America

This book is based on the statements of the world's leading Shariah authorities and Shariah academic scholars.

The Abuse of Holocaust Memory.

Myths of Islam

"Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual."

Amanullah Khan - King of Afghanistan (1919-1929).

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source

The Jewish Holocaust.

The Armenian Holocaust.

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